From: <levy@Oswego.EDU>
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 15:31:56 -0500 (EST)
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: music and evolution
In-Reply-To: <199903220907.JAA11640@alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk>
>Effects of music and white noise on working memory performance in monkeys
>S. Carlson, P. Rama, D. Artchakov and I. Linnankoski
>Neuroreport 8:13, 2853--6, Sep 8 1997
>
>It has been claimed that listening to Mozart improves cognitive
>performance. One suggested explanation has been that the music sets up
>some kind of rhytm or entrainment in the brain that is
>beneficial. This study tested this by using monkeys as experimental
>subjects instead of students as usual. The monkeys had learned to do a
>working memory task, and silence, music (Mozart's Piano Concerto
>No. 21 in C), a simple rhythm and white noise was played for the
>monkeys before or during testing. If the sounds were played before
>there was no significant effect. If played during the task Mozart
>*decreased* their performance, while white noise increased it
>(compared to the silence control group). This suggests that whatever
>the beneficial effects of music are in humans, they are not due to
>some simple neurologic effect but rather our higher level
>cognition.
Or perhaps it means that musical cognition is a fundamental biological
characteristic which determined our speciation, making us different from
other proto-chimps.
- -
-Robert P. Levy-
- -
A random quote...
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
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